A technique for determining the effectiveness of an offer includes analyzing views, clicks, acceptances and satisfactions of the offer. Transaction data is retrieved to determine whether criteria of the offer has been satisfied. As a result, a total cost per transaction may be determined for an advertisement campaign that incorporates the offer. Further, detailed queries may be issued to identify areas in which the offer needs improvement.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A method for measuring conversion of an online advertising campaign for an offline merchant by communicating with a payment processor that facilitates electronic payment transactions between the offline merchant and respective customers of the offline merchant to determine completion of conversion transactions between the respective customers and the offline merchant in response to the respective customers receiving and accepting an online referral offer from the offline merchant via a plurality of different webpage advertisements, each webpage advertisement of the plurality of webpage advertisements including offer data for the online offer and being rendered by web browsers coupled to the Internet and used by the respective customers to view the plurality of different webpage advertisements for the online referral offer, wherein the offer data for the online referral offer specifies at least one criterion for the respective customers to satisfy the online referral offer and thereby complete the conversion transactions with the offline merchant, the method comprising: storing, by an offer engine coupled to the Internet, offer information for the online referral offer, wherein the offer information includes: a merchant identifier of the offline merchant for the payment processor to facilitate the electronic payment transactions between the offline merchant and the respective customers of the offline merchant and the offer data specifying the at least one criterion for the customers to satisfy the online referral offer; determining, by the offer engine, that a first customer of the respective customers, viewing a first webpage advertisement including the online referral offer via a first web browser, clicked on the first webpage advertisement including the online referral offer; providing, by the offer engine via the Internet, an interface for display on the first web browser of the first customer to register a first customer account with the offer engine to accept the online referral offer; in response to providing the interface to register the first customer account, receiving by the offer engine via the Internet: a first payment account number of a first payment account for the first customer, wherein the first payment account includes at least one of a customer credit card, a customer debit card, and a customer prepaid card; and at least one email address for at least one referral customer referred by the first customer; transmitting, by the offer engine, using the at least one email address, a notification of the referral offer to the at least one referral customer; transmitting a query to the payment processor, by the offer engine via the Internet, for a plurality of offline transactions for in-store purchases at one or more brick-and-mortar locations of the offline merchant, wherein the transmitted query includes the merchant identifier included in the offer information for the payment processor to facilitate the electronic payment transactions between the offline merchant and the respective customers of the offline merchant; receiving the plurality of offline transactions from the payment processor in response to the query including the merchant identifier transmitted by the offer engine via the Internet, wherein the plurality of offline transactions received by the offer engine from the payment processor do not include an identification of the online referral offer; and determining, by the offer engine based on the plurality of offline transactions received from the payment processor and the at least one criterion specified by the online referral offer in the stored offer information, whether the first customer has completed a first offline conversion transaction corresponding to the online referral offer by: determining if the at least one criterion specified by the online referral offer is satisfied in at least one offline transaction of the plurality of offline transactions received from the payment processor; and for each offline transaction of the at least one offline transaction in which the at least one criterion specified by the online referral offer is satisfied: determining if one offline transaction of the the at least one offline transaction is the first offline conversion transaction completed by the first customer, based at least in part on the first payment account number of the first payment account for the first customer received by the offer engine via the Internet in response to providing the interface to register the first customer account to accept the online referral offer.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining, by the offer engine, that the first customer clicked on the webpage advertisement including the online referral offer comprises: determining, via at least one of a browser cookie and Internet Protocol (IP) address tracking, that the first customer clicked on the webpage advertisement.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein: transmitting the notification of the referral offer to the at least one referral customer comprises providing in the notification a second interface for display to the at least one referral customer to register a first referral customer account with the offer engine to accept the online referral offer; and the method further comprises receiving, by the offer engine, in response to providing the second interface to register the first referral customer account, a second payment account number of a second payment account for the first referral customer, wherein the second payment account includes at least one of a first referral customer credit card, a first referral customer debit card, and a first referral customer prepaid card.
4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising: determining, by the offer engine based on the one or more offline transactions received from the payment processor and the at least one criterion specified by the online referral offer in the stored offer information, whether the first referral customer has completed a second offline transaction corresponding to the online referral offer by: determining if a second offline transaction of the one or more offline transactions is the second offline transaction completed by the first referral customer, based at least in part on the second payment account number of the second payment account for the first referral customer received by the offer engine in response to providing the second interface to register the first referral customer account to accept the online referral offer.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining if the one offline transaction of the one or more offline transactions is the first offline transaction completed by the first customer further comprises: extracting, by the offer engine, a hashed transaction payment account number included in the one offline transaction; comparing the extracted hashed transaction payment account number against a first hashed account number corresponding to the first payment account number of the first payment account for the first customer received by the offer engine via the :Internet in response to providing the interface to register the first customer account; and determining that the first customer has completed the first offline transaction corresponding to the online referral offer if the extracted hashed transaction payment account number matches the first hashed account number corresponding to the first payment account number of the first payment account for the first customer.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the first customer has completed the first offline transaction corresponding to the online offer comprises: determining whether the first customer performed an action comprising at least one of: purchasing a certain quantity of a good or service, spending a certain amount in a particular purchase, making a purchase at a particular time, or making a number of purchases within a particular amount of time.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more offline transactions are compiled for the payment processor by one or more of: a merchant system of the offline merchant; a payment card issuer that issues the at least one of the customer credit card, the customer debit card, and the customer prepaid card to the first customer; a payment processor system that processes the in-store sale using the at least one of the customer credit card, the customer debit card, and the customer prepaid card for the offline merchant; a point of sale system that processes the in-store sale for the offline merchant using the at least one of the customer credit card, the customer debit card, and the customer prepaid card; or a financial institution that maintains financial funds for at least one of the first customer or the offline merchant.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: responsive to determining that the first customer has completed the first offline transaction corresponding to the online referral offer, providing a metric for display that is based on the first customer receiving the online referral offer and satisfying the online referral offer.
9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising: calculating, by the offer engine, a cost per transaction of the online advertising campaign by the offline merchant, based at least in part by dividing a total cost of the online advertising campaign by a number of the one or more offline transactions received from the payment processor that satisfy the at least one criterion specified by the online referral offer; and transmitting, from the offer engine via the Internet to a second web browser, a second interface for display on the second web browser, wherein the second interface comprises: a menu to allow a first selection of the online advertising campaign from a plurality of different online advertising campaigns and a second selection to generate a report for at least one of: online offers viewed vs. online offers clicked by the respective customers; online offers clicked vs. online offers accepted by the respective customers; online offers accepted vs. online offers satisfied by the respective customers; and the cost per transaction of the online advertising campaign; and an output to display the at least one of the online offers viewed vs. online offers clicked by the respective customers, the online offers clicked vs. online offers accepted by the respective customers, the online offers accepted vs. online offers satisfied by the respective customers, and the cost per transaction of the online advertising campaign.
10. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, perform a method for measuring conversion of an online advertising campaign for an offline merchant by communicating with a payment processor that facilitates electronic payment transactions between the offline merchant and respective customers of the offline merchant to determine completion of conversion transactions between respective customers and the offline merchant in response to the respective customers receiving and accepting an online referral offer from the offline merchant via a plurality of different webpage advertisements, each webpage advertisement of the plurality of webpage advertisements including offer data for the online offer and being rendered by web browsers coupled to the Internet and used by the respective customers to view the plurality of different webpage advertisements for the online referral offer, wherein the online referral offer specifies at least one criterion for the respective customers to satisfy the online referral offer and thereby complete the conversion transactions with the offline merchant, the method comprising: storing, by an offer engine coupled to the Internet, offer information for the online referral offer, wherein the offer information includes: a merchant identifier of the offline merchant for the payment processor to facilitate the electronic payment transactions between the offline merchant and the respective customers of the offline merchant and the offer data specifying the at least one criterion for the customers to satisfy the online referral offer; determining, by the offer engine, that a first customer of the respective customers, viewing a first webpage advertisement including the online referral offer via a first web browser, clicked on the first webpage advertisement including the online referral offer; providing, by the offer engine via the Internet, an interface for display on the first web browser of the first customer to register a first customer account with the offer engine to accept the online referral offer; in response to providing the interface to register the first customer account, receiving by the offer engine via the Internet a first payment account number of a first payment account for the first customer, wherein the first payment account includes at least one of a customer credit card, a customer debit card, and a customer prepaid card; and at least one email address for at least one referral customer referred by the first customer; transmitting, by the offer engine, using the at least one email address, a notification of he referral offer to the at least one referral customer; transmitting a query to the payment processor, by the offer engine via the Internet, for a plurality of offline transactions for in-store purchases at one or more brick-and-mortar locations of the offline merchant, wherein the transmitted query includes the merchant identifier included in the offer information for the payment processor to facilitate the electronic payment transactions between the offline merchant and the respective customers of the offline merchant; receiving the plurality of offline transactions from the payment processor in response to the query including the merchant identifier transmitted by the offer engine via the Internet, wherein the plurality of offline transactions received by the offer engine from the payment processor do not include an identification of the online referral offer; and determining, by the offer engine based on the plurality of offline transactions received from the payment processor and the at least one criterion specified by the online referral offer in the stored offer information, whether the first customer has completed a first offline conversion transaction corresponding to the online referral offer by: determining if the at least one criterion specified by the online referral offer is satisfied in at least one offline transaction of the plurality of offline transactions received from the payment processor; and for each offline transaction of the at least one offline transaction in which the at least one criterion specified by the online referral offer is satisfied: determining if one offline transaction of the the at least one offline transaction is the first offline conversion transaction completed by the first customer, based at least in part on the first payment account number of the first payment account for the first customer received by the offer engine via the Internet in response to providing the interface to register the first customer account to accept the online referral offer.
11. The computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein in the method, determining by the offer engine that the first customer clicked on the webpage advertisement including the online referral offer comprises: determining, via at least one of a browser cookie and Internet Protocol (IP) address tracking, that the first customer clicked on the webpage advertisement.
12. The computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein: in the method, transmitting the notification of the referral offer to the at least one referral customer comprises providing in the notification a second interface for display to the at least one referral customer to register a first referral customer account with the offer engine to accept the online referral offer; and the method further comprises receiving, by the offer engine, in response to providing the second interface to register the first referral customer account, a second payment account number of a second payment account for the first referral customer, wherein the second payment account includes at least one of a first referral customer credit card, a first referral customer debit card, and a first referral customer prepaid card.
13. The computer readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the method further comprises: determining, by the offer engine based on the one or more offline transactions received from the payment processor and the at least one criterion specified by the online referral offer in the stored offer information, whether the first referral customer has completed a second offline transaction corresponding to the online referral offer by: determining if a second offline transaction of the one or more offline transactions is the second offline transaction completed by the first referral customer, based at least in part on the second payment account number of the second payment account for the first referral customer received by the offer engine in response to providing the second interface to register the first referral customer account to accept the online referral offer.
14. The computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein in the method, determining if the one offline transaction of the one or more offline transactions is the first offline transaction completed by the first customer further comprises: extracting, by the offer engine, a hashed transaction payment account number included in the one offline transaction; comparing the extracted hashed transaction payment account number against a first hashed account number corresponding to the first payment account number of the first payment account for the first customer received by the offer engine via the Internet in response to providing the interface to register the first customer account; and determining that the first customer has completed the first offline transaction corresponding to the online referral offer if the extracted hashed transaction payment account number matches the first hashed account number corresponding to the first payment account number of the first payment account for the first customer.
15. The computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein in the method, determining whether the first customer has completed the first offline transaction corresponding to the online offer comprises: determining whether the first customer performed an action comprising at least one of: purchasing a certain quantity of a good or service, spending a certain amount in a particular purchase, making a purchase at a particular time, or making a number of purchases within a particular amount of time.
16. The computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the one or more offline transactions are compiled for the payment processor by one or more of: a merchant system of the offline merchant; a payment card issuer that issues the at least one of the customer credit card, the customer debit card, and the customer prepaid card to the first customer; a payment processor system that processes the in-store sale using the at least one of the customer credit card, the customer debit card, and the customer prepaid card for the offline merchant; a point of sale system that processes the in-store sale for the offline merchant using the at least one of the customer credit card, the customer debit card, and the customer prepaid card; or a financial institution that maintains financial funds for at least one of the first customer or the offline merchant.
17. The computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the method further comprises: responsive to determining that the first customer has completed the first offline transaction corresponding to the online referral offer, providing a metric for display that is based on the first customer receiving the online referral offer and satisfying the online referral offer.
18. The computer readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the method further comprises: calculating, by the offer engine, a cost per transaction of the online advertising campaign by the offline merchant, based at least in part by dividing a total cost of the online advertising campaign by a number of the one or more offline transactions received from the payment processor that satisfy the at least one criterion specified by the online referral offer; and transmitting, from the offer engine via the Internet to a second web browser, a second interface for display on the second web browser, wherein the second interface comprises: a menu to allow a first selection of the online advertising campaign from a plurality of different online advertising campaigns and a second selection to generate a report for at least one of: online offers viewed vs. online offers clicked by the respective customers; online offers clicked vs, online offers accepted by the respective customers; online offers accepted vs. online offers satisfied by the respective customers; and the cost per transaction of the online advertising campaign; and an output to display the at least one of the online offers viewed vs. online offers clicked by the respective customers, the online offers clicked vs. online offers accepted by the respective customers, the online offers accepted vs. online offers satisfied by the respective customers, and the cost per transaction of the online advertising campaign.
19. A system to measure conversion of an online advertising campaign for an offline merchant by communicating with a payment processor that facilitates electronic payment transactions between the offline merchant and respective customers of the offline merchant to determine completion of conversion transactions between respective customers and the offline merchant in response to the respective customers receiving and accepting an online referral offer from the offline merchant via a plurality of different webpage advertisements, each webpage advertisement of the plurality of webpage advertisements including offer data for the online offer and being rendered by web browsers coupled to the Internet and used by the respective customers to view plurality of different webpage advertisements for the online referral offer, wherein the offer data for the online referral offer specifies at least one criterion for the respective customers to satisfy the online referral offer and thereby complete the conversion transactions with the offline merchant, the system comprising: a computer processor; and a memory to store instructions that are executable by the computer processor to cause the processor to: store offer information for the online referral offer, wherein the offer information includes: a merchant identifier of the offline merchant for the payment processor to facilitate the electronic payment transactions between the offline merchant and the respective customers of the offline merchant; and the offer data specifying the at least one criterion for the customers to satisfy the online referral offer; determine that a first customer of the respective customers viewing a first webpage advertisement including the online referral offer via a first web browser, clicked on the first webpage advertisement including the online referral offer; provide, via the Internet, an interface for display on the first web browser of the first customer to register a first customer account with the offer engine to accept the online referral offer; in response to providing the interface to register the first customer account, receive via the Internet: a first payment account number of a first payment account for the first customer, wherein the first payment account includes at least one of a customer credit card, a customer debit card, and a customer prepaid card; and at least one email address for at least one referral customer referred by the first customer; transmit, by the offer engine, using the at least one email address, a notification of the referral offer to the at least one referral customer; transmit a query to the payment processor, via the Internet to a payment processor, for a plurality of offline transactions for in-store purchases at one or more brick-and-mortar locations of the offline merchant, wherein the transmitted query includes the merchant identifier included in the offer information for the payment processor to facilitate the electronic payment transactions between the offline merchant and the respective customers of the offline merchant; receive the plurality of offline transactions from the payment processor in response to the query including the merchant identifier transmitted via the Internet, wherein the plurality of offline transactions received by the offer engine from the payment processor do not include an identification of the online referral offer; and determine, based on the plurality of offline transactions received from the payment processor and the at least one criterion specified by the online referral offer in the stored offer information, whether the first customer has completed a first offline conversion transaction corresponding to the online referral offer by: determining if the at least one criterion specified by the online referral offer is satisfied in at least one offline transaction of the plurality of offline transactions received from the payment processor; and for each offline transaction of the at least one offline transaction in which the at least one criterion specified by the online referral offer is satisfied: determining if one offline transaction of the the at least one offline transaction is the first offline conversion transaction completed by the first customer, based at least in part on the first payment account number of the first payment account for the first customer received by the offer engine via the Internet in response to providing the interface to register the first customer account to accept the online referral offer.
20. The system of claim 19 , wherein in determining that the first customer clicked on the webpage advertisement including the online referral offer, the instructions further cause the computer processor to: determine, via at least one of a browser cookie and Internet Protocol (IP) address tracking, that the first customer clicked on the webpage advertisement.
21. The system of claim 19 , wherein: in transmitting the notification of the referral offer to the at least one referral customer, the instructions further cause the computer processor to provide in the notification a second interface for display to the at least one referral customer to register a first referral customer account to accept the online referral offer; and the instructions further cause the computer processor to receive, in response to providing the second interface to register the first referral customer account, a second payment account number of a second payment account for the first referral customer, wherein the second payment account includes at least one of a first referral customer credit card, a first referral customer debit card, and a first referral customer prepaid card.
22. The system of claim 21 , wherein the instructions further cause the computer processor to: determine, based on the one or more offline transactions received from the payment processor and the at least one criterion specified by the online referral offer in the stored offer information, whether the first referral customer has completed a second offline transaction corresponding to the online referral offer by: determining if a second offline transaction of the one or more offline transactions is the second offline transaction completed by the first referral customer, based at least in part on the second payment account number of the second payment account for the first referral customer received by the offer engine in response to providing the second interface to register the first referral customer account to accept the online referral offer.
23. The system of claim 19 , wherein in determining if the one offline transaction of the one or more offline transactions is the first offline transaction completed by the first customer, the instruction further cause the computer processor to: extract a hashed transaction payment account number included in the one offline transaction; compare the extracted hashed transaction payment account number against a first hashed account number corresponding to the first payment account number of the first payment account for the first customer received via the Internet in response to providing the interface to register the first customer account; and determine that the first customer has completed the first offline transaction corresponding to the online referral offer if the extracted hashed transaction payment account number matches the first hashed account number corresponding to the first payment account number of the first payment account for the first customer.
24. The system of claim 19 , wherein in determining whether the first customer has completed the first offline transaction corresponding to the online offer, the instructions further cause the computer processor to: determine whether the first customer performed an action comprising at least one of: purchasing a certain quantity of a good or service, spending a certain amount in a particular purchase, making a purchase at a particular time, or making a number of purchases within a particular amount of time.
25. The system of claim 19 , wherein the one or more offline transactions are compiled for the payment processor by one or more of: a merchant system of the offline merchant; a payment card issuer that issues the at least one of the customer credit card, the customer debit card, and the customer prepaid card to the first customer; a payment processor system that processes the in-store sale using the at least one of the customer credit card, the customer debit card, and the customer prepaid card for the offline merchant; a point of sale system that processes the in-store sale for the offline merchant using the at least one of the customer credit card, the customer debit card, and the customer prepaid card; or a financial institution that maintains financial funds for at least one of the first customer or the offline merchant.
26. The system of claim 19 , wherein the instructions further cause the computer processor to: provide a metric for display that is based on the first customer receiving the online referral offer and satisfying the online referral offer, responsive to determining that the first customer has completed the first offline transaction corresponding to the online referral offer.
27. The system of claim 26 , wherein the instructions further cause the computer processor to: calculate a cost per transaction of the online advertising campaign by the offline merchant, based at least in part by dividing a total cost of the online advertising campaign by a number of the one or more offline transactions received from the payment processor that satisfy the at least one criterion specified by the online referral offer; and transmit, via the Internet to a second web browser, a second interface for display on the second web browser, wherein the second interface comprises: a menu to allow a first selection of the online advertising campaign from a plurality of different online advertising campaigns and a second selection to generate a report for at least one of: online offers viewed vs. online offers clicked by the respective customers; online offers clicked vs. online offers accepted by the respective customers; online offers accepted vs. online offers satisfied by the respective customers; and the cost per transaction of the online advertising campaign; and an output to display the at least one of the online offers viewed vs. online offers clicked by the respective customers, the online offers clicked vs. online offers accepted by the respective customers, the online offers accepted vs. online offers satisfied by the respective customers, and the cost per transaction of the online advertising campaign.
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August 16, 2011
September 8, 2020
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